There are so many top-notch technologies being launched in Japan every single day, and I have a habit of reading about these world-class technologies. What surprises me is the trend for Japanese tech companies to launch a single product in so many different colors. Cell phones would be the perfect example since several companies such as NTT DoCoMo would literally try to release their product using all the colors of the rainbow. I experienced this firsthand when I visited Akihabara (aka Electric Town) in Tokyo, Japan and saw probably a hundred different models of cell phones being displayed in a single store location. Being a marketer, I can’t help but wonder whether offering more varities to consumers would actually entice more consumer purchases.
My conclusion is that offering more choices does not increase consumer purchases. Here are my reasonings:
- When consumers are presented with more choices, their purchasing decisions will be prolonged.
- Delayed purchasing decisions can lead to longer servicing time for the retail store and possible in-store traffic jams.
- Having a lot of product variety may overwhelm a consumer which could break a sale.
- Consumers tend to always think the products they don’t possess is always better. Having more choices result in higher expectations. If they settle on one product, then they will only feel dissappointed later by regretting not to purchase the other choice instead.
Unfortunately, this is the reality of the consumer behavior in the 21st century. We always want what we don’t have. Materialism will never stop and will only become a greater issue in the future. But I guess this is a good thing for me as a marketer. What good is a marketer without consumerism?
